Economists to-day are awake to the imperative duty of dealing with the
whole of human nature, with the relation of men, women, and children to
their environment--physical and psychic as well as social; of dealing
with all those factors which contribute to human sustenance, happiness
and welfare. The economist, at length, investigates human motives.
Economics outgrows the outworn metaphysical preconceptions of nineteenth
century theory. To-day we witness the creation of a new "welfare" or
social economics, based on a fuller and more complete knowledge of the
human race, upon a recognition of sex as well as of hunger; in brief, of
physiological instincts and psychological demands. The newer economists
are beginning to recognize that their science heretofore failed to take
into account the most vital factors in modern industry--it failed
to foresee the inevitable consequences of compulsory motherhood; the
catastrophic effects of child labor upon racial health; the overwhelming
importance of national vitality and well-being; the international
ramifications of the population problem; the relation of indiscriminate
breeding to feeble-mindedness, and industrial inefficiency. It
speculated too little or not at all on human motives. Human nature riots
through the traditional economic structure, as Carlton Parker pointed
out, with ridicule and destruction; the old-fashioned economist looked
on helpless and aghast.
Inevitably we are driven to the conclusion that the exhaustively
economic interpretation of contemporary history is inadequate to
meet the present situation. In his suggestive book, "The Acquisitive
Society," R. H. Tawney, arrives at the conclusion that "obsession
by economic issues is as local and transitory as it is repulsive and
disturbing. To future generations it will appear as pitiable as the
obsession of the seventeenth century by religious quarrels appears
to-day; indeed, it is less rational, since the object with which it is
concerned is less important. And it is a poison which inflames every
wound and turns each trivial scratch into a malignant ulcer. Society
will not solve the particular problems of industry until that poison is
expelled, and it has learned to see industry in its proper perspective.
IF IT IS TO DO THAT IT MUST REARRANGE THE SCALE OF VALUES. It must
regard economic interests as one element in life, not as the whole of
life...."(5)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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